Yondu

Yondu Udonta, or simply Yondu, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original version of the character is depicted as the last survivor of his species in the 31st century, and a founding member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy team from the Marvel Multiverse alternate reality known as Earth-691.

The Earth-691 Yondu is depicted as a blue skinned male with a large red fin protruding from the back of his head and back, a spiritual warrior who can control his arrows via sound waves, most commonly by whistling. Yondu joined Vance Astro and a number of survivors of the Badoon attack on Earth's solar system in the 31st Century to become known as the Guardians of the Galaxy. As part of the Guardians Yondu traveled to present day Earth and became an honorary member of the Avengers. The original Yondu never starred as a solo character in any Marvel Comic books but was a core member of the team in the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book that ran from 1990 to 1995.

A second version of Yondu was first introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 2014 Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy, portrayed by Michael Rooker, where the character is instead depicted as a space pirate living in the present. He also appears in the film's 2017 sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. After the release of the first film, Marvel Comics introduced a comic book version of that character to the Earth-616 comic book continuity, where he is a space pirate leading a group of pirates known as "The Ravagers". The present day Yondu character has appeared both in the Guardians of the Galaxy animated show as well as being a playable character in Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes as well as in Marvel Future Fight.

Publication history

The Earth-691 version of Yondu first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (January 1969). According to Roy Thomas, all of the original Guardians of the Galaxy were created in a conference between Arnold Drake and Stan Lee, but it remains uncertain whether each individual character was created by Drake, Lee, or both.^[1]

Yondu appeared along with the rest of the original Guardians of the Galaxy team in the 2014 series Guardians 3000. Writer Dan Abnett described him as "the instinct" of the team.^[2]

The Earth-616 version of Yondu first appeared in Star-Lord #2 and was created by Sam Humphries and Javier Garron.

Fictional character biography

Earth-691

Yondu Udonta is a member of the Zatoan tribe, primitive beings native to Centauri IV. He functions as a hunter. His homeworld was the first planet to be colonized by humans that was outside Earth's solar system. Yondu is born in the late thirtieth century. Yondu's people had fled from contact with overwhelming Earth colonizers who had begun arriving in 2940 A.D.

In 3006 A.D., Vance Astro, an astronaut from Earth, lands on Yondu's planet with an antiquated propulsion ship. Vance encounters Yondu during the latter's trial of manhood. Yondu attacks him, but is repelled by Vance's powers. Vance keeps this secret as Yondu's action was illegal. Yondu works with Vance when the Badoon, an alien race, overtakes the planet later that year. All the other Centaurians are believed to have been slaughtered. Vance and Yondu escape in his ship to fetch help but the Badoon capture them easily. The duo are taken to Earth which, by 3007 A.D., has also been conquered. When questioned, Vance pretends to be unfriendly with Yondu. They later escape and team up with Charlie-27 of the Jupiter colony and Martinex of the Pluto colony, forming the Guardians of the Galaxy to fight the Badoon.^[3]

For the next seven years, the four survivors attack the Badoon's outposts in the solar system. In 3014 A.D., the Guardians team with the time-traveling Thing, Captain America, and Sharon Carter to retake New York City from the Badoon forces.^[4] In 3015 A.D., the Guardians time-travel to the 20th Century^[5] and return to 3015 A.D. with the Defenders and later meet Starhawk.^[6] After humanity defeats the Brotherhood of Badoon occupiers, the Sisterhood of Badoon arrive and remove the males from Earth.^[7]

Yondu and the Guardians team with the time-traveling Thor, and battled Korvac and his Minions of Menace.^[8] Yondu travels to the present alongside his fellow Guardians, and assists the Avengers against Korvac.^[9] In 3017 A.D., Yondu and the Guardians go on a quest to find the lost shield of Captain America. They battle Taserface and the Stark, and defeat the Stark.^[10] Yondu's right hand is later destroyed by Interface, and replaced by Martinex with a bionic appendage.^[11] Yondu later leaves the team when it is revealed that a small enclave of his people have survived on Centauri IV.^[12] These Kikaahe (“cave dwellers”) escaped death at the hands of the Badoon because the walls of the cavern where they lived contained the mineral trillite (“yaka”) which blocks radio waves, thereby shielding them from sensors. Since his newfound people will not accept his bionic weapon-hand, Yondu allows the Guardians to use their advanced medical technology to restore his flesh-and-blood hand. During their farewells, Vance apologizes for what he had thought was unacceptable treatment of Yondu during their earlier adventurers.^[13]

Earth-616

The Earth-616 version of Yondu has been identified by writer Sam Humphries as "the great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather of the Yondu in the original Guardians of the Galaxy and 'Guardians 3000'."^[14] On this Earth, Yondu is the leader of the Ravagers, a group of Space Pirates. Yondu finds Peter Quill when his ship malfunctions and strands him on Earth.^[15] The Ravagers rescue him as Peter tries to steal his ship, managing to outsmart every member of the crew and capturing Yondu. After Yondu frees himself from his restraints and attacks Peter, he gives him a choice between letting himself be released into space without more trouble or execution. Peter instead asks to join his crew. Yondu is initially skeptical of this idea, but after he learns Peter, like him, is a homeless orphan, Yondu allows him to stay on the ship with the Ravagers as their cleaning boy. Peter uses the opportunity to learn everything he can from space.^[16] Star-Lord does the cleaning boy job for the Ravagers until Yondu makes him an official Ravager.^[17]

Powers and abilities

As a member of the marsupial alien race of the planet Centauri IV, Yondu possesses an intuitive mystical "sixth sense" perception that permits him limited empathic relationships with other lifeforms. The higher the lifeform, the more limited is his empathic potential. Additionally, Yondu possesses an intuitive rapport with nature, particularly with his own world, but also with any world that still possesses natural wildlife. With this rapport, he can sense incongruous elements (foreign bodies or substances) or focus on specific elements within the whole (such as the location of a given plant). He is also sensitive to mystical beings and forces and is able to detect their presence and activities without effort. By going into a trance, Yondu is able to replenish his own inner strength by communing with natural forces.

Yondu is an above average physical specimen of his race. He has slightly more strength and endurance than the average human male. As a hunter, Yondu is an expert in the use of bow and arrow. His ability to whistle with a range of four octaves aids his archery (see Weapons, below). The native Centaurian language is a system of grunts, clicks, and whistles, but Yondu has managed to master the English language, although it is painful for him to speak for too long without resting his throat. He is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, and a highly skilled hunter and tracker. He has extensive knowledge of the social and religious customs of the natives of Centauri IV.

Weapons

Yondu uses a 5-foot (1.5 m) single curve bow and a quiver of arrows composed of yaka, a special sound-sensitive metal found only on Centauri IV. A yaka arrow can actually change its direction (but not speed) in response to certain high-octave whistle-sounds some Centaurians can produce. Yondu is so skillful at controlling his arrows, he can cause an arrow to return to his hand or weave its way through a crowd of people without touching them. Yondu's arrows are 15 inches (38 cm) in length and are very flexible. He carries about 20 of them at one time. In Secret Wars, Yondu utilizes his expertise in archery by shooting "drone-arrows" to give the Guardians an eye in the sky.

Yondu's right hand is replaced for a time by a bionic device called a weapons concealment appendage, a metal cup replacing his right hand.^[11] Thus, he could no longer practice archery nor perform functions requiring him to grasp with his right hand. The device can release from within itself a number of weapons, including a mace, a hatchet, a scythe, a barbed spear, and others; when not in use the weapons are concealed within the appendage at a reduced size, until enlarged by Pym particles. Yondu's bionic weapon-hand is later replaced with a duplicate of his original hand.^[13]

In other media

Television

Yondu appears in the Guardians of the Galaxy TV series, voiced by James Arnold Taylor.^[18][19]

Film

Michael Rooker as Yondu at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International

• Michael Rooker plays Yondu Udonta in the 2014 Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy.^[20] In this continuity, armed with a self-propelled arrow that he can control through whistling, Yondu is the leader of a clan of Ravagers, and kidnapped Peter Quill, raising him to be a Ravager. Yondu initially chases after Quill after he takes an orb artifact for himself instead of turning it over to the Ravagers. After it is revealed that the orb holds the Power Stone, and Quill and Gamora are captured by Yondu, Yondu is persuaded to aid the Guardians in stopping Ronan from using the orb to destroy Xandar with the promise of claiming the orb for himself. However, after Yondu claims the orb from Quill and departs, he learns that Quill gave him a fake that holds a Troll doll to add to his collection of small figurines, much to his amusement. Yondu and his lieutenant, Kraglin, reveal in dialogue that it was Quill's father who hired Yondu to kidnap and deliver the young Peter Quill to him, but that they decided not to deliver the boy to him because Quill's father, according to Yondu, was a "jackass".
• Rooker reprised the role in the 2017 film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.^[21] It is revealed that Yondu and his Ravager clan were exiled from the greater Ravager community after kidnapping Peter and Ego's other children, which broke the Ravager Code. Yondu and his crew are tasked on Contraxia by Ayesha's representatives to track down and capture the Guardians. However, Taserface initiates a mutiny and Yondu is incarcerated with Rocket Raccoon and Groot. He has his fin ripped off in the process, which is revealed as the technology enabling him to control his arrow. Yondu subsequently uses a larger fin that more closely resembles his appearance from the comics- identified as the prototype for the fin he wore in the first film- which is retrieved by Groot. With help from this last loyalist Kraglin, Yondu, Rocket, and Groot escape and destroy his ship, killing all the mutineers. Yondu then helps the Guardians defeat Ego, with Rocket and Groot proclaiming him to be part of the team thanks to his actions, and sacrifices his life to save Peter's when they exit the planet's atmosphere, Yondu using the last jetpack but giving Peter the last spacesuit. It is revealed the reason he kept Quill was because he realized Ego had slain all the other children he had sired and summoned back to him and Yondu wanted to protect Peter from that end. During Yondu's funeral, Peter declares Yondu his true father. Informed about his last deeds by Rocket Raccoon, Stakar and the other Ravagers salute Yondu as a hero for his self-sacrifice.

Video games

• Yondu appears in Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes,^[22] voiced by Chris Edgerly.^[23] He appears as both a mission giver and playable character. He also appears in Disney Infinity 3.0.
• Yondu is a playable character in Marvel: Future Fight.^[24]
• Yondu appears in Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2.^[25]
• Yondu appears in Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, voiced by Mark Barbolak. In episode 1, he is seen in a flashback induced by Star-Lord being badly wounded by Hala the Accuser. Yondu tells Peter that Meredith asked him to watch over Peter after her death. If Peter Quill trusts Yondu, he agrees to go along with Yondu who starts to show him his new home. If Peter Quill doesn't trust Yondu, this will cause Yondu to forcefully drag him to his new home. In episode 1, the Guardians of the Galaxy visit Yondu at the Neon District on the planet Rajek where Star-Lord enlists him to help repair the Milano. There is some history between Yondu and Rocket Raccoon where Yondu bought some weapons that Rocket Raccoon sold him. While he helps fix the ship, he does accompany the Guardians of the Galaxy in the event that the player chooses not to accompany Rocket Raccoon to Halfworld resulting in Rocket Raccoon borrowing Yondu's ship.
• Yondu is also a playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions.
• Yondu is a playable character in the match-three mobile and PC game Marvel Puzzle Quest. Yondu was added to the game in August 2017.^[26]

References

External links

• Yondu at the Marvel Universe wiki

• Yondu on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki
• Yondu at the Comic Book DB